D12 - Raw and rambunctious video for brand new track 'My Band', released 12th April 2004.

D12

Raw and rambunctious D12 video for brand new track 'My Band', released 12th April 2004.

Raw and rambunctious from the outset, D12 includes Em and five of his Motor City co-di's who, like him, double-up on their personas in order to unleash more uncontained rowdy energy. Denaun a.k.a Kon Artis, Big Proof a.k.a. Dirty Harry, Swift a.k.a Swifty McVeigh, Kuniva a.k.a. Rondell Beene, and Bizarre a.k.a. Peter S. Bizarre.

The six-man crew met seven years ago at Detroit's Hip Hop Shop, a local hangout where emcees of all calibers would gather in hopes of droppin' a verse or two during the store's Saturday open-mic sessions. Still unknown, Em had stepped to a local producer, Kon Artis, to come up with some beats for

Em's indie-release Infinite. Meanwhile, word about the ill white boy was getting around to another of Detroit's most notorious emcees, MC Proof. The two squared off and instantly gained respect for each other. I remember we both said the same obscure punch-line to each other, remembers Proof.

That when I knew he did his homework as an emcee.

Most members of D12 had already established themselves throughout hip-hop's underground segment with their respective solo careers. Bizarre independently released his debut EP, Attack of the Weirdos in 1997. Swifty was earnin' his stripes as one half of the BMG/Mecca Don Records recording artist, Rabeez, while Proof released an indie single, Searchin b/w Anywhere, in 1995.

We were all these little stragglers, says Proof, so we thought that we would form together in a group and be the illest. Instantly finding a common bond with their outrageous subject matter, the assembled forces honed their skills under the alias D12 (six members x two personalities = D12).